1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the transmission of content, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for transmitting content in a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, when two portable terminals share content such as an image, a video, etc., the content can be transmitted between the two portable terminals by using Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) Direct, Near Field Communication (NFC), or Bluetooth. At this time, a user must determine which technology, from among these technologies, is to be used to transmit the content. The user also must perform a preset process for the determined technology. When the transmission of the content is completed, the user also must also perform a process for restoring each portable terminal to a state existing before performance of the preset process to transmit the content.
In this regard, in order to transmit content from one portable terminal to another portable terminal, content to be transmitted is selected, a send button is operated, a list of targets of reception of a file to be transmitted is generated, a target of the reception of the file to be transmitted is selected from the list, a procedure for authenticating the target of the reception is completed, a device corresponding to the target of the reception enters a stand-by state capable of receiving the file to be transmitted, and then the transmission of the file begins. Accordingly, the above-described method is inconvenient, due to its' cumbersome procedures.
Many users are also unfamiliar with wireless transmission technologies, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), and are also unfamiliar with corresponding related technologies, such as searching, scanning, pairing, bonding, Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), Security Simple Pairing (SSP), and Visibility and Discoverable. Accordingly, users may not be able to easily determine which wireless transmission technology is appropriate for transmission of a file with respect to a particular situation. An overly-simplified determination causes problems, in that each user transmits or receives content by using only a wireless transmission technology familiar to each user.
Also, when content is shared by using a wireless transmission technology such as Bluetooth (version 3.0 or below) or Wi-Fi, both a Bluetooth module and a Wi-Fi module of an apparatus for transmitting and receiving content must be activated. Accordingly, when the apparatus for transmitting and receiving content is a portable terminal powered by a battery, if both the Bluetooth module and the Wi-Fi module are continuously activated in order to share a file, excess power consumption occurs.
Also, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) module, which is a short-range communication module referred to as Bluetooth 4.0, is characterized by operating with less power than modules using Bluetooth version 3.0 or below. Accordingly, a BLE module minimizes the consumption of a battery (not illustrated) of the portable terminal, even when the BLE module is continuously activated. The BLE module may be provided together with a module using Bluetooth version 3.0 or below, or may be provided on its own, in place of a module using Bluetooth version 3.0 or below.
However, when using a BLE module, one master terminal can make a communication connection with multiple slave terminals. By contrast, each slave terminal can make a communication connection with only one master terminal.
Accordingly, while a slave terminal performs BLE communication with a first master terminal, a second master terminal cannot perform BLE communication with the slave terminal. Therefore, there is a need for a method in which the second master terminal can make an automatic communication connection with the slave terminal, with which the second terminal cannot perform BLE communication, through another available communication module.
In this regard, a need exists for a method and an apparatus for transmitting content in a portable terminal which, in sharing content between portable terminals, can omit a cumbersome procedure for selecting a communication technology to be used to transmit content to a counterpart portable terminal that is also making a communication connection with another portable terminal, and that can minimize various settings required to transmit the content.